After a long wait, the Aaron Rodgers saga finally reached a conclusion on Monday afternoon.
The longtime Green Bay Packers quarterback is heading to the New York Jets as we all expected. In addition to swapping first-round picks in 2023, the Jets will receive a fifth-rounder this year while the Packers get New York’s second and fourth-round picks in 2023 as well as a conditional 2024 second-round pick, which becomes a first-rounder if Rodgers plays on 65% of the team’s offensive snaps this fall.
With all that out of the way, one major question remains: What jersey number will Rodgers wear in the Big Apple?
The 18-year NFL veteran has worn the same No. 12 jersey throughout his professional career, the entirety of which has been spent in Green Bay. But coming to New York threw a bit of a wrench into things.
The Jets have retired the No. 12 jersey, which was worn by Joe Namath, the only quarterback to lead the team to a Super Bowl championship. Namath actually apparently granted Rodgers permission to bring the jersey out of retirement, but instead, the 39-year-old has something else in mind.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Rodgers will don No. 8 with the Jets in 2023, which he wore in college with the California Golden Bears.
Although Hall-of-Fame QB Joe Namath gave Aaron Rodgers his blessing to wear No. 12, the new Jets‘ QB is expected to wear No. 8 — the number he wore in college at Cal.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 24, 2023
As one of the top quarterbacks in football prepares to begin a new chapter in his career, he’ll be doing it with a different jersey number as he hopes to end a playoff drought that dates back to 2010.
